Is there any interest in Road Champ MuscleCars bought at TRU between 1999 and 2002 Doug

If it helps I worked at Jakks from 2000 to 2007 as the lead Road Champs product designer. If you have any questions regarding them, or the 1:64 Shock Racers vehicles, I can likely help.

Is there any interest in Road Champ MuscleCars bought at TRU between 1999 and 2002 Doug
Yes, What's up?

just wondering if they have any value or are they still worth what I paid for them, they are mainly just camaros and chevelles and 1 or 2 GoodGuys show cars? Thinking of thinning out my diecast that never sees the outside of a 30 gallon tote.

They are worth exactly what they are selling for on eBay, no more no less. Just do a search on completed auctions. Very few modern diecast are worth what you paid for them.

If it helps I worked at Jakks from 2000 to 2007 as the lead Road Champs product designer. If you have any questions regarding them, or the 1:64 Shock Racers vehicles, I can likely help.

Sounds fascinating :thumbsup: Can you give us some background? How did you become a diecast toy car designer? How many castings did you work on?I have not seen any Road Chanps in the stores around here for several years...

Karl

Sounds fascinating :thumbsup: Can you give us some background? How did you become a diecast toy car designer? How many castings did you work on?I have not seen any Road Chanps in the stores around here for several years...

Karl

Hi Karl:

Well, I consider myself a "toy designer" in a more general term. I have a bachelor of fine arts majoring in Industrial Design from the Cleveland Institute of Art (1997). I went there originally to be a car designer, but my passion for Hot Rods and Muscle Cars conflicted with current market needs (suv's, minivans, economy cars, etc). Fortunately, I found enjoyment in designing toys and shifted my interest to that while still in school. I've been doing it ever since.

As for Road Champs, I can not take credit for designing the 1:43 castings. They were completed long before I ever joined the company. I moved into the Road Champs team in the spring of 2000 and all the castings were completed by then. Actually, most of that market was drying up by then (wasn't profitable enough for the company), which is why you don't see much from then since 2000. Jakks Pacific bought Road Champs in 1997, and they had several people work on the dcc lines, but they lacked a truly dedicated "car guy". When I joined the team the 1:43 line was on its way out. I only worked on a few lines of the 1:43 cars for them that made it to the stores. They were the last 2 series of the "Petersen" line (these were the cars that featured the Hot Rod, Car Craft, etc magazine feature cars) One series of this was still in the display box, the other line was on a blister card and the vehicles had removable wheels with a replaceable second set. I also worked on a few "anniversary" cars (75th anniversary for Pontiac), a "Vintage Ads" series, a couple "Classic scenes" and a premium Divco truck with a Lionel deco. I never worked on any police cars as they were considered "premiums" and that was handled by a different dept.

I had made numerous attempts at keeping the lines going, but, it didn't work out. It's a shame, too, as they had many cars in various stages of development, as well as a few completed castings that never saw full production.

The last line of 1:43 cars to come from there were in a kids line (not collectors) called "Custom Garage". This was a line I started in 2004, but, after the first series was handed over to another designer (I went on to design the "Fly Wheels" line of toys) This had a few muscle and sports cars that came decorated in a "rusted" like deco that the kid would restore and fix up the car. It came with a battery operated polisher, extra wheels and engine parts, stickers, etc to customize the car. Think of the tv show "overhaulin" as a toy line. It was a good toy, and lasted a few series.

I hope this helps.

-Brendon

Ps.

writing this caused a rush of nostalgia in me, so I looked on ebay to see what I had worked on for the 1:43 line. Here's the auction #'s to some of them if you're interested:

320328522261
350147126575
330297708253
330297708812
200294958208
180317749259
180317750242
180317751740
300284660244
300284799639

Brendon: Welcome to the boards, it's great to hear from someone that is involved in the die-cast design! :thumbsup:

Brendon - thanks for your posting - I was fascinated with what you said. I graduated in 1982 as an engineer so I am old enough to have been a kid when ~1/43 Dinkys and Corgis were sold in the toy stores in the US. So I started collecting as a kid in the 1960-70s - and never stopped. :rolleyes:

I love your DIVCO (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350147126575&ru=http%3A%2F%2Fshop.ebay.com%3A80%2F%3F_from%3DR4 0%26_trksid%3Dm38%26_nkw%3D350147126575%2B%26_fvi% 3D1) milk truck - very different from all the muscle cars you designed - how did that come about? Do you know why it was cast by Road Champs? I never saw it in any stores around here... :confused:

Karl

I love your milk truck - very different from all the muscle cars you designed - how did that come about? Do you know why it was cast by Road Champs? I never saw it in any stores around here... :confused:

Karl[/QUOTE]

Hi Karl:

I didn't actually design the Divco Milk Truck casting. It was an existing tool when I joined the company. That particular deco (Graham) I created as I was asked to develop a ficticous milk company for the Divco Milk Truck. That deco was for a premium line (not mainline stores) which is why you probably didn't see it in stores you typically shop at.

For the other vehicles, they too were all existing castings that were in production before I joined the company. For the "Vintage Ads" that was a line I proposed and went to production. I did this shortly before I think it was Racing Champions who did something similar at a smaller scale. However, I think they were more successful with their line. The Petersen (Magazines) line was an existing line. For series 8 we were charged with cost reducing the product so we eliminated the collector case and replaced it with a blister card package. To keep a somewhat similar "perception of value" we added the extra wheels and the removable wheel feature.

For developing diecast vehicles, it's more of a "project managing" type of job as we would be responsible for choosing assortments (which vehicles), which decos, and turning over to our engineers overseas the proper information on time all while keeping things within cost. As an engineer I'm sure you know all about that. Licensed cars are just that- they are existing designs that we are replicating. There isn't a lot of traditional design involved. It helps being a "car guy" because we're more likely to know what cars are hot, what colors and graphics to use, etc. As a designer it's good because you can then create an assortment that has variety and a broad appeal to the majority of customers (as opposed to making an assortment of 6 hugger orange camaros). In my case I worked with what was there already and did the best I could. Unfortunately, I joined too late. Had I been there a year sooner I'm sure I could have made the 1:43 line much more successful. The last few cars I worked on (not to brag) were much more accurately detailed and the lines looked a lot better. I had a lot of compliments from our sales dept, but the current product wasn't moving on the shelves so most of the ones I worked on never made it out.

I was able to apply more tradition "design" skills in other product lines I worked on there. These include the line of "RXS" vehicles, "Fly Wheels", to name a few. The RXS vehicles were neat because they were highly detailed off road vehicles that had interchangable parts and working suspension. They had diecast bodies. For these I was able to design (though the actual control drawings were vended out) the line and make the graphics. Each series had subsequent better deco as my computer skills improved. We made 5 or so series with I think 20k per series. We had 6 vehicles at first and introduced two more later, as well as a couple of track sets. We further expanded the line with a battery operated chassis.

Below is an ebay auction selling 2 RXS vehicles:

290286515383

The yellow one was from series 2, and the blue one was from series 3. The cool thing is I have a white one in series 2. (original color. we changed it before production start)

I hope this is helpful.

-Brendon

Hi Karl: I overlooked your question- no, I don't know why the Divco truck was picked, but I'm glad it was. It was a neat truck. Road Champs had many non muscle car castings. They hada "Good Humor" ice cream truck, an old Christie steamer fire truck (more of a horse drawn cart, actually) a 1920 paddy wagon/ salt truck, as well as many other vehicles from all the decades.

I enjoyed the 1/43 Road Champs line when it was current. I felt that Road Champs was somewhat creative in the choice of castings. They did the only casting I have ever seen of a '55 Pontaic Safari. They also did a '58 Pontiac Bonneville - otherwise only available from Brooklin. They did a nice '55 Oldsmobile Starfire convertible, a '61 Chevrolet Apache pick up and a '57 Ford Fairlane 500 (well done as a convertible but awkward as a coupe). They used accurate, period colors for these vehicles.

They of course did plenty of the common stuff - Corvettes, Mustangs, '55 Chevys and Camaros - which were not really at all needed but I guess they thought those were the castings that would sell.

Their product was priced well and while not as fine or detailed as other lines they were a bargain. I still think the Road Champs were well finished - that is that the application of the paint and the nominal detail done was careful and of some quality. I am sorry they did not continue the line.

- ranchero -

Brendon, my fav Road Champs was the:
http://asheville-diecast.com/cart.php?target=image&action=product_image&id=20885
but now it is the DIVCO! Gotta git me one! :thumbsup:

Road Champs had many non muscle car castings. They hada "Good Humor" ice cream truck, an old Christie steamer fire truck (more of a horse drawn cart, actually) a 1920 paddy wagon/ salt truck, as well as many other vehicles from all the decades.
I collect 1/43 muscle cars, vintage NHRA and interesting vintage cars/trucks. Road Champs is one company that I do not collect due to fact that they have opening doors on their muscle car castings. IMO Their castings are great but I just don't like opening doors (hoods and trunks are OK) on a 1/43 car. :mad: There, that's my two cents on Road Champ 1/43 muscle cars.
Below is a photo of their "ice cream" truck (I don't mind that these doors open):
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc309/MalibuSeaS/diecast/IceCream1.jpg
http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc309/MalibuSeaS/diecast/IceCream2.jpg
Thanx, Frank

Brendon, my fav Road Champs was the:
http://asheville-diecast.com/cart.php?target=image&action=product_image&id=20885
but now it is the DIVCO! Gotta git me one! :thumbsup:

Look for the "Lionelville" one. It was probably the last (Divco) one made, and the graphics came out quite well. Much better than the "Graham" milk truck, imo. I found a pic online, hopefully, it attached successfully.

I enjoyed the 1/43 Road Champs line when it was current. I felt that Road Champs was somewhat creative in the choice of castings. They did the only casting I have ever seen of a '55 Pontaic Safari. They also did a '58 Pontiac Bonneville - otherwise only available from Brooklin. They did a nice '55 Oldsmobile Starfire convertible, a '61 Chevrolet Apache pick up and a '57 Ford Fairlane 500 (well done as a convertible but awkward as a coupe). They used accurate, period colors for these vehicles.

They of course did plenty of the common stuff - Corvettes, Mustangs, '55 Chevys and Camaros - which were not really at all needed but I guess they thought those were the castings that would sell.

Their product was priced well and while not as fine or detailed as other lines they were a bargain. I still think the Road Champs were well finished - that is that the application of the paint and the nominal detail done was careful and of some quality. I am sorry they did not continue the line.

- ranchero -

You would have enjoyed the 1957 T-Bird (in both hard top and convertible versions) and the 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Barritz convertible. Both tooled, but never shipped. They were probably the last ones made and the castings looked great. Unfortunately, I don't have either one.